Update 10/31/11 – (dedicated to the #Occupy forces all over this nation and this world. )

With a firm date set for a General Strike in Oakland for Wednesday, November 2, I felt it a good idea to introduce my Occupy Friends to the original architect of Effective Strikes, Ray Rogers.  Enjoy the reading, learn more about the history of civil disobedience, find a few surprises, and then put this wisdom to work for you.  SOLIDARITY

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Whenever I conjure up the Great Depression in my imagination, I think of the dust bowl, long lines of unemployed, people on streetcorners selling apples for a nickel, and…Labor Unions.

Americans think that we have it tough in this financial malaise we are calling the “Great Recession” – and we do – but nowhere close to what was experienced during the Great Depression of the 30’s. As poor a “safety net” we seem to have, there was nothing remotely equivalent to unemployment insurance, health care, workers rights, etc.

It was during this time, while Americans were scratching for bare survival, that the Union movement became energized. Over time, by standing up for worker’s rights they became big, powerful, didn’t back down from intimidation, and they set the stage for a better life for all of us.

A better life that appears to be evaporating, it would seem.

As much as he has accomplished given the financial mess he inherited, Obama has not proven to be the “second-coming” of FDR. That Democratic President of the 30′s said of his political opponents, “They hate me, and I invite their hate,” and then he proceeded to bulldoze progressive programs and reforms so as to see that the common citizen would have a “fair deal.”

That was just the encouragement Union people – your great grandparents, aunts and uncles in faded tintypes and photographs – needed to hear. Here are the fruits of their activism:

March 3, 1931 Davis-Bacon Act The Davis-Bacon Act requires that federal contractors pay their workers the wages and benefits prevailing in the local market when working on a public works project. The law keeps employers from importing cheaper workers from outside the region.

March 23, 1932 Norris-La Guardia Act The Norris-La Guardia Act proclaims that yellow-dog contracts, which require a worker to promise not to join a union, are unenforceable, settling a long-standing dispute between management and labor. The law also limits courts’ power to issue injunctions against strikes.

March 5, 1933 Perkins Named Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins becomes Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, the first woman in U.S. history to hold a cabinet post. She favors a comprehensive, pro-labor agenda including minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance, old-age pensions and abolition of child labor. Her influence on labor policy in the New Deal will be huge.

July 27, 1935 Wagner Act President Roosevelt signs into law the National Labor Relations Act, known as the Wagner Act. The law safeguards union organizing efforts and authorizes the National Labor Relations Board to assure fairness in union elections and during collective bargaining with employers. The new law tilts the playing field significantly in labor’s favor, prompting a huge unionization drive throughout the late 1930s.

June 25, 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act The Fair Labor Standards Act sets a 40-hour workweek with time-and-a-half for additional hours. It also establishes a national minimum wage and puts severe restrictions on child labor.

No, Dorothy, businesses did not “give” workers a 40-hour week, overtime pay, social security – they were taken as legitimate rights for ALL workers. And, where do Unions stand today? Greatly weakened by business-friendly government regulations, smaller worker populations, and public apathy.

Let me assure you, Unions are “Down, But Not Out,” if people like Ray Rogers, the most recent subject of my PWRNradio weekly show, has his way. “You must confront power with power,” he declares, and is demonstrating that with a vengeance in his campaign against the excesses and crimes of the Coca Cola company.

As part of this fight, Ray Rogers is the subject of a Documentary being filmed by Pulitzer-Prize Winner Nancy Siesel, called “The Man Corporations Love to Hate.” (Take a peek at the trailer here (cut and paste into your browser):  http://bit.ly/n8ejz8. Ray is an acknowledged and important pioneer in the Union Movement, described by The Boston Herald as labor’s most innovative strategist and “one of the most successful union organizers since the CIO sit-down strikes of the 30’s.”

Tune in and hear what this man has to say, then go out there and do your part. Being silent, is being complicit. The job and country you save, may be your own.  To hear this interview (cut and paste into your browser):   http://bit.ly/pG0ieL.

Can “Yesterday’s Tool” Tame T00-Big-To-Care Corporations?

If there is any one group of people in the United States which has consistently fought back against being “written off” – it is the Union Movement.

As evidenced by the recent and ongoing uproar in Wisconsin caused by the government’s attempt to limit – and even eliminate – the unions and certain of its activities, and similar governmental “triumphs” over organized worker representation in New Jersey, it appears a renascence is needed.  Perhaps, not a moment in history too soon.

The concern is, will any form of organized resistance work in an environment in which both government and industry have colluded over the years to reduce those rights? Is the “strike” outmoded? Are 1,000 tweets more effective than 1,000 feet on the street? Is Social Media today’s Social Movement?

Some say that, if the American labor movement is to rise again, it will not be as a result of electing different politicians, the passage of legislation, or improved methods of union organizing.   Joe Burns, author of Strike! declares that “workers will need to rediscover the power of the strike. Not the ineffectual strike of today, where employees meekly sit on picket lines waiting for scabs to take their jobs, but the type of strike capable of grinding industries to a halt—the kind employed up until the 1960s.”

When asked for their appraisal of those challenges, one observer in a LinkedIn group remarked: “This may be the last resort we have to regain power over the global corporatists that have unfettered access to our government through the special interest groups they finance, the lobbyists they employ, the media they influence, and the politicians they purchase.”

Sounds like an impossible task.  Who among us has the knowledge and skills…translated to meet today’s challenges? Exactly that man may have been captured by documentary filmmaker Nancy Siesel in her film-in-progress “The Man Corporations Love to Hate” – Ray Rogers.

The Man Corporations Love to Hate is a feature length documentary in the making about Ray Rogers, a labor and human rights activist best known for his campaign against the notoriously anti-union J.P. Stevens & Co. (on which the Academy Award winning film “Norma Rae” was based). Nancy’s documentary will feature Ray’s “Stop Killer Coke” campaign which, by its subject alone, will compel attention, attack and defense.

Nancy Siesel is a Pulitzer prize winning photojournalist who was awarded this honor in 2002 while a staff photographer with The New York Times for her contribution to their 9/11 series.  Her work has been published in four New York Times books including “How Race is Lived in America”, “A Century in Times Square”, “A Nation Challenged: A Visual History of 9/11 and Its Aftermath”.

Ready to hear about this film directly from the filmmaker? Go to my PWRNradio interview: http://bit.ly/jers7b
Ready to see a trailer of the film?  Go to www.tinyurl.com/therayproject
Ready to organize?  Check in with Nancy at www.NancySiesel.com

I put this question to my peers in the ARM (Accounts Receivable Management) earlier this month as a guest blogger for their industry go-to site, www.insideARM.com and got some very interesting responses which you (if you are reading this as a ‘debtor’) need to hear. You just might be surprised.  If you chase debt for a living, you might be a bit surprised, yourself.

Bill collectors just don’t feel the love (you can read excerpts of their responses to my insideARM blog towards the end of this one).

Just this month, an assistant editor for New Deal 2.0 posted an article titled “Debt Collection Agencies Gone Wild.” In fairness, the author affirms that – just as the FDA doesn’t prevent overdoses and consumer protections cannot rescue people who simply do not want to pay what they owe – the role of personal responsibility needs to be emphasized.

But – and here the article takes aim at debt purchasers and their pursuit tactics – collection operations “act more like organized crime than private businesses” and cites increased complaints to state agencies regarding threats of violence and use of profanity.  Similar reports to the FTC have risen 17% in 2010…and I can only imagine what it must be like this year as the Great Recession grinds on.

What alarmed New Deal’s author, and should alarm you as well, is a new twist in debt collection tactics in which people actually being jailed – a 21st Century twist on “Debtor’s Prisons.”

In Minneapolis, by filing unanswered complaints with the local courts, the use of arrest warrants jumped 60% in the past four years, or 845 cases in 2009.  Judges have signed off on 5,000 such warrants since early 2010 in nine counties studied by the Wall Street Journal. People have been jailed for a debt as small as $85.  And, in an age of budgetary stress, did I mention an overburdened legal system now being clogged?

I won’t even go into the article’s complaints about the abuse of social media in which collectors “friend” debtors in order to snoop about their personal information for clues on their landing a new job (Aha! Wages to Garnish), their vacation trips or favorite expensive restaurants.  Let’s just allow “all’s fair” in debt collection if such ploys do not break the law or breach the FDCPA.

One of my contemporaries once described bill collectors as being “The guys who clean up after the parade.” The Great Recession is one miserable parade they are cleaning up after.

The real problem, that this industry will not address, is the legitimacy and the morality of much of the debt they are given to work. They certainly complain about the lack of “personal responsibility” on the part of the debtor.  At what point do they also take responsibility?

I’m not talking about the obvious and relatively easy choices they could make, such as declining to pursue out-of-statute debt or to not employ tricks to get a debtor to re-start the debt clock.  I’m not even talking about debt that is shabbily documented but still pressed because it has been assigned to them by “reputable” clients.

I’m talking about the increasing percentage of debt that falls on a collector’s desk that is in itself questionable. The dollars owed may have – hell, have been – foisted off on unsuspecting or unsophisticated consumers by financial institutions.  Knowingly, financial institutions placed these people at risk from Day One with the coldly-calculated expectation that a significant percentage of these consumers would eventually – inevitably – default.

Those extra handling fees, late charges, escalated interest and “collection costs” that compound the debt burden?  Already figured into profit and loss projections.  You pay, they win. You don’t pay, they win.  Over this past decade of banker greed, who do you think has lost?  Not them.

Collections Industry Defense? If Their Client Isn’t Moral, Why Should They Be?

“You owe it, you pay it” can no longer…if their morals serve as a compass…be the attitude of bill collectors.  Isn’t it time to question the quality or even legitimacy of debts caused by the great Mortgage frauds? Payday Lenders? Advance-fee lenders? Gambling notes? Unscrupulous contractors?

Don’t even get me started on student debt…

It makes no difference to me as to how people in the ARM industry attempt to re-arrange the deck chairs on their Titanic.  They have hit an implacable iceberg of mostly-righteous consumer complaint about their ethics and their morality, and are taking water.  In spite of the public clamor and outrage, they never questioned the route they were on, nor their breakneck speed, and they are paying for it.

It’s at the point where individuals in this industry, if not their employers, need to establish moral authority and join arms with consumers and agencies to proclaim: “I will not work illegitimate or immorally-derived debt!”

I don’t advise you to hold your breath.  Too many are still caught up in debating whether to blame the public and/or the very few (by their count) “bad apples” in their world.  Listen in, and this is what you will hear:

Industry Response to the Blog

“Personal responsibility is one of the pillars of capitalism. What you are suggesting sounds nice and empathetic, but it is one more step toward the ‘nanny state’ of socialistic society. I don’t want to go there and I refuse to help others go there by acting as a safety valve for their own bad decisions…however innocent.”
-MS

“PLEASE. Enough of the ‘moral preachings.’ Where are the morals of the millions of people who incur these debts, VERY willing to have the service, the product, yes even the roof over their heads yet they feel they don’t have to repay the debts.”
-RM

“Jerry, you are a very savvy (not to mention effective) spokesperson for your trade….purge the debt buyers. Push them towards the big banks by making it clear that the banks and the buyers are two sides of the same coin.  (This) apparently successful get-the-money-at-all-costs approach of the debt buyer facilitates bad lending and vice versa.”
-KO

“I believe it makes good business sense for collectors to operate under a moral compass. What was the debt for? What caused you to fall behind? What is your current situation? Acting on behalf of the creditor, but seeking a mutually beneficial ‘consumer workout,’ places the collector in a position where morality comes into play.”
-GL

So, my dear reader, where do you fall in the arc of sentiment.  Are debt collectors the bad guys, or the financial institutions that drop your debt on those desks?  Or, do debtors deserve that label?  Let me know; I will be happy to report back.  My industry just loooooooves the feedback.

Oh yes – the insideARM blog in question:  http://bit.ly/lLcIgq

By guest blogger Michelle Dunn

No one likes collecting on past due accounts. Unfortunately it is a reality of doing business and will never go away. According to American Express most small business owners go to individual mentors for advice when they have a problem, 51% look for help on social networks and 31% from the internet. When you have a problem customer and don’t know what to do in order to get paid, which avenue do you take?

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business owner with past due customers is not doing anything at all, if you ask a mentor, they may be able to give you some good solid advice if they have experience in collections but not everyone is up to date on the laws. Social networks can uncover some experts that can help you, but the key there is to get advice before you need it. Once an account becomes past due, the time for researching what you should do is over. You need to take action immediately.

Top 10 mistakes business owners make when trying to get paid:

• Not having customers fill out and sign a credit application at the time of sale.
• Getting incomplete information at the time of the sale
• Not checking credit or references!
• Ignoring accounts as they become more and more delinquent – hoping the person will pay
• Not having a credit plan that outlines what steps should be taken when someone becomes past due or a check is returned for NSF
• Not placing accounts with a collection agency soon enough
• Not having documentation to support or “prove” the debt when someone doesn’t pay
• Shipping more products or performing more services when an account is already past due
• Not checking credit references
• Being to lenient with credit when the customer is a “friend” or family member

Now that you know the top mistakes most business owners make when customers become past due, you can dedicate yourself to making sure that YOU don’t make these mistakes! You are in business to make money, stop working for free.

Michelle Dunn is an award winning author and columnist frequently featured in the Wall Street Journal, CNN and Forbes. Look for her newest book being released in May by Wiley Publishing titled, “The Guide to Getting Paid, weed out bad paying customers, collect on past due balances and avoid bad debt”, available now on Amazon.

Visit Michelle online at MichelleDunn.com & Credit-and-Collections.com

the Cobell v. Documentary

For whatever reason, every evil perpetrated against the American Indian by the U.S. Government, and quite likely every state in the Union, has never achieved a high enough level of visibility to evoke the outrage which is deserved.

That may change with the release of a monumental documentary in the making called Cobell v.

Cobell v. is a feature length documentary-in-the-making about Elouise Cobell and the largest class action lawsuit ever filed against the U.S. government.  After 14 years in the courts and innumerable delays, obfuscations, and outright lies, a Blackfeet Indian woman succeeded in getting “a small measure of justice” when the federal government backed down and President Barack Obama signed the $3.4 Billion Cobell Settlement Act into existence.

This historic event was not simply an accumulated accomplishment of a single native woman driven to seek justice in her lifetime.  This required a team of dedicated Americans – both Native and non-Native – to bring into existence the acknowledgment of, and compensation for, 123 years of injustice for some 500,000 Native Americans.

In my PWRNradio Internet radio interview with Melinda Janko, President of Fire in the Belly Productions, you will clearly hear in her voice the anger that any American citizen should have when they are made aware of an injustice – no, so many injustices – done in our name by a Government; a government that turned on its country’s very own and original inhabitants.

You will also hear her steely dedication to see that this story reaches every single one of us.  When you view the five-minute movie trailer, you will see the fruits of that determination.

A key chapter in Written Off – America and Americans will be devoted to detailing a number of the financial transgressions against the Indian, but scarcely does justice to revealing enough of the criminal and moral injustices that need to be understood.  Fortunately, “a picture is worth a 1,000 words,” which is why I am including this film and featuring its importance.

But, this documentary’s completion and screening will not take place without an Army of Angels.  That is where you come in…if you care.

There is no better way at this point than a successful crowd funding campaign to reach across America and even around the world to help Fire in the Belly Productions raise the finishing funds to tell this powerful story.

Please become a recruit in this venture by committing volunteer time and/or dollars to see that Cobell v. finally leaves the screening room to reach the living room.  Full details can be found at the website link provided at PWRNradio.  Listen to the interview first, or watch the trailer first – just be first in line when we call for help.

So, while you are here at the WOAA site please click here to go to that interview and then to the film’s website.  Your moccasins will never take you to a better place.

As a member of this embattled community, I want the reader to know that many people in the world of debt collection have been wringing their hands in despair over the way that they are viewed in the press.

Some have proposed a full court press of PR to distribute stories to counter their ongoing, negative image. To their credit, others have individually picked up the gauntlet and set about – quietly – to improve their communities and thereby improving that perception.

Few Americans are aware of these good works and the hundreds of thousands of agency dollars going to local charities, hospitals, American red Cross, Haitian relief, senior communities, healthcare, public libraries, women’s shelters, to assist returning veterans and the United Way.

I would like to suggest an impactful way, nationally, for this industry to make that difference. It is to provide solutions to a problem that is national in scope, but affects practically every town in America.

This week, I am formally inviting a number of their associations (i.e., ACA International) to help launch a charitable program to be called INNVITE – INNocent VIctims of This Economy.  As well, I am inviting industry publications the stature of insideARM and CCR World to promote and publicize this program to their readers.

Who are these INNVITE people?   As illuminated in a 60 Minutes special report aired this past Sunday evening, these are the homeless kids who are the unfortunate and innocent victims of this economy – children in shelters, along with their parents.

Few of us are aware that nearly 25% of America’s children now are officially at or near poverty level. Unequivocally, it is not their fault. Millions of good Americans have lost their jobs and even their homes in this “great recession.” Their kids are the collateral damage of an economy that went off the rails.

As seen inn this 60 Minutes piece, so many children in Seminole Country, FL, live in cheap motels that school buses now routinely stop there.  At last count, there are 67 such lodgings that house some 500 homeless kids along Highway 192.   Yes, that road – the one leading to Disney World – “the happiest place on earth.”

(The 60-minute segment can be found here: http://bit.ly/hGzkce)

Now, the question.  Given the number of charities members of the ARM (Accounts Receivable Management) industry have contributed to along the way, why should their industry be singled out to work with these unfortunates?

At minimum, because it is likely that telephone collectors and attorneys met their parents on their way down. At one time, these “debtors” were hard working homeowners or apartment dwellers.  At one time, they had jobs and credit cards.  And, as surely as night follows day, at one time they were on the other end of the phone when the collection calls started.

Yes, debt collection was one more painful stage on the way down to the bottom. Our collectors knew it, because they heard the painful stories. But, they had to do their jobs, quietly collecting what little they could and writing off the balance. Soon enough, these people were out of their world.

If that is a minimum enough reason, what could be the “at maximum.” Because this industry is large enough, and has heart enough, to make a very real difference in the lives of these unfortunates. Surely, there but for the grace of God, any of these debt collectors could find themselves there as well.

There is another industry connection, as well, for them to consider.

This is Linda Almonte, a credit professional who was the subject of much attention (including a NYTimes article) this past year due to her summarily being fired by JPMorgan Chase for refusing to “sign off” on a flawed debt portfolio to be sold off to debt collectors.

Subsequently, Linda turned “whistleblower” and found herself ostracized and unemployable.  As a result, she and evicted from her San Antonio apartment along with her husband and children. This resulted in her ending up in Florida where she had to rely on friends, scramble for places to stay, and get her kids back into school.

As fortune would have it, Linda ended up meeting Beth Davalos, the woman who runs the county’s program for kids and who was featured in the 60 Minutes segment. When Linda learned of the upcoming 60 Minutes show, she wrote and and requested my help. She didn’t have to ask twice.

Sensing that this could be an important way for the ARM family to show compassion, I reached out to a few people in my industry…without much initial success. “Why choose this as a charity?” “Our constituency has their own pet programs.” Or, “How do we know this won’t blow up in our face?”

Well, I humbly suggest that none of these considerations are good enough to stop ARM individuals, companies, organizations and publications from giving INNVITE strong consideration.  There is a chance for national attention, perhaps even another 60 Minutes piece.

Perhaps insideARM could poll its readers for their views.  ACA International might even put INNVITE to a vote, if that is what it takes to adopt it as a high-visibility industry cause.  There are a number of upcoming conventions and conferences which could use Linda and Beth as speakers to support and draw attention to INNVITE.

I am assured that Linda and Beth stand ready to work as special emissaries in any fashion to connect the industry with this cause. Should any of my readers – within or outside of this industry – want to reach out on your own to grow this conversation, Linda can be reached at Almontex6.la@gmail.com.

There is no reason that debt collectors as a group have to choose between their present good works and a national charitable campaign. Both are within their reach. Open your hearts, spread your ARMs.

So, what is it?  Spend considerable sums on a high-priced PR to put a positive “spin” on the industry, or put this money and energy to work, instead, to make a difference.  I think we all know the answer.

As I wandered around the crowd of NYU students at their rally protesting student debt at the end of February, I couldn’t believe the accumulated wealth they represented – for the credit and collections industry.

It was lip-smacking.

At my right, to graphically display how she was debt-burdened, was a girl wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the fine sum of $90,000, another with $65,000, a third with $20,000 and over there a really attractive $120,000 was printed on another shirt. Guys were shouldering their share, with t-shirts of $20,000, $15,000, $27,000, $33,000 and $75,000.

Although not every past or current NYU student debtor was there to participate, it would have taken stores full of t-shirts to advertise the $659,000,000 in NYU student debt is hanging out there. Yes, $659 MILLION! This is the largest student debt of any non-profit university in the country.

If non-profits can rack up these numbers, you can imagine the dollars owed, collectively, by for-profit schools. Actually, there is no need to guess. It was announced last summer that student debt is now greater than that of credit card holders and even the victims of subprime mortgages. It is fast approaching ONE TRILLION DOLLARS.

The hard work of those generating this debt upstream from the collections industry has been noted. Shares of the University of Phoenix parent Apollo Group, the largest for-profit college chain by enrollment ($4.9BB – yes, that’s billion), soared when GW Bush’s administration eased regulation to get things in motion a few years back.

A much smaller group, Capella, with an enrollment of 38,000, got 78 percent of its $335 million in revenue from government loans and grants in 2009.

Why are for-profit schools important for the debt buying and collection industry? These colleges received $26.5 billion in U.S. loans and grants in 2009. Even though they educate less than 10 percent of all college students, they get 25 percent of all Pell grants and make up 44 percent of federal student loan defaults.

Stephen Burd, the editor of the New America Foundation’s Higher Ed Watch Blog, has remarked on Sallie Mae’s alignment with for-profit colleges – not all of them reputable – which allow them to fund student loans “with interest rates and fees totaling more than 20 percent per year to financially needy students who normally wouldn’t qualify…because of their subprime credit scores.”

So, if the agency or collector can put aside some of the less savory aspects of loan origination, they can only consider this, “good news in the pipeline.” As bill collectors and debt buyers only work on what is termed bad debt, which is guaranteed under these circumstances and in today’s economic environment – they are in for lifetime employment!

But, let’s go back to this modest NYU student “Casualties of Debt” gathering. It might cause the industry some concern.

The rally instigators were Charlie Eisenhood (t-shirt $20,000) and former NYU student and “MTV Darling” Andrew Jenks (t-shirt $20,000). Charlie is local and still in school, but Jenks has graduated and has an impressive platform from which to complain – MTV – which makes him capable of engaging students and activists at a larger and national level.

Known for his college speaking tours and MTV documentaries, Jenks didn’t have to look far for subject matter according to an article in the NYULocal student newspaper: Tisch Film graduate, Jonah Pettigrew. Pettigrew’s respected NYU diploma was able to land worthwhile jobs, including a stint as a DP for Jenk’s MTV show, but he owes $200,000 to various collection agencies.

“It’s like no matter how much you make, you’re barely scraping by. I’m paying for my food with nickels and dimes,” he was quoted saying.

Stephen Burd, the editor of the New America Foundation’s Higher Ed Watch blog, has written (that) Sallie Mae has often allied itself with for-profit college – not all of them reputable – thereby helping fund private student loans “with interest rates and fees totaling more than 20 percent per year to financially needy students who normally wouldn’t qualify for them because of their subprime credit scores.”

Will students begin dusting off the pitchforks?

Alan Collinge of StudenLoanJustice.org is one of the aggrieved that is leading a backlash. Himself a victim of being oversold and overly aggressively pursued, his research has shown that the Department of Education makes more on its defaulted loans than it does on its paying portfolio. As Alan states wryly, “This is exactly what the first President Bush meant when he declared his intention “to run government like a business.”

He colorfully states in a blog at his Facebook page:

“…I apologize in advance for the vulgarity coming your way…but the bottom line, is that no American f***s another American the way we’ve been f****d and gets away with it. …Don’t ever forget that we absolutely hold the power, and by a huge margin. We ARE the country. We ARE the student loan debt, for example…”

Another militant is Chase Cryn Johannsen, Managing Editor at EduLender and blogger at HuffingtonPost.com. She has railed against the debt collection/loan predator industry for years. Some of her blog titles: “‘Til Death do us Part, Unless We’re Talking About Your Student Loans,” and “Dying for an Education” about the relationship between suicide and student loan debt.

She has a friend in “Nando” of “Third Tier Reality” (a graduate of a Tier Three Law School not much pleased by third-tier employment offers). His purpose, among many, is to inform potential law school students and applicants of the ugly realities and expense of attending law school. (Has it come to this? Sharks-in-Training serving as Chum for lawyers in the lending industry? Wow.)

What if these kids start finding each other and pulling together? Naaaaaah.

“It’s funny to me,” Alan says, “how we (students abused by lenders) are so badly underestimated by those who think they can wipe their feet on us as if we were a carpet…when in fact we are the very ground on which they stand…”

But, I digress. Let me once again address the esteem in which Lenders and G’uvmint are held. In fact, let me count the ways:

12 Reasons Why Bill Collectors Love Student Debtors. (Or, How to Strong-Arm the Helpless for Fun & Profit.)

1. No Room at the Inn. Unpaid student loans on a credit report almost surely dooms an application for apartment or home rental – and don’t even think about buying that home…

2. Can’t Study Here – You’re a Bad Risk. No federal grants for defaulted students as community colleges.

3. Tired of Dead-End Jobs with No Future? Enroll at our school and we can guarantee you a dead-end life along with that dead-end future.

4. Tax Refund? Social Security? We’ll take that, too – without even a court order, thank you.

5. Minimum Wage (or less) Guaranteed. Mainly cuz your better-job app will be turned down with our collections on your credit report.

6. Who is the Better Enforcer, U.S. or the Mafia? The Education Department will extract 15% of after-tax paychecks to repay its loans and estimates it will collect 100% of the dollar value of all defaulted student loans it services.

7. Handicapped? Sounds Like a Personal Problem to Me. Although former students developing severe and lasting disabilities are legally entitled to loan forgiveness, an Orwellian review process dims those hopes and leads many to just give up. Disability payments? We’ll tap those, too.

8. We’ll Keep that Diploma, Please. That is, until you pay off the student loan debt you owe us.

9. Take a Little Off the Top. Legislators provided holders of defaulted student loans the ability to appropriate 20% of all payments from debtors before applying what remains to principle and interest.

10. There Will be a Quiz. Students are virtually forced to enroll in “loan rehabilitation” programs, essentially an extortion, as a way of buying their way out of more severe penalties. Naturally, these fees are rarely applied to principle or interest.

11. Oh Yes, and One More Fee. Loan guarantors are granted the same kind of interest in default. Guaranty Agencies average about 60% of their income from fees alone.

12. Did I Mention Incest? Lenders, Guarantors and Collectors can form a system of interwoven interests in your loan. Example: a lender defaults a loan, which then becomes bloated with collection fees which then guarantees a flow of revenues to the guarantor and the collector. If the latter two are owned by the lender (i.e., citigroup), we have income continuously flowing to all three – providing the borrower continues to be in default.

And the best appreciation yet – directed to the debt-burdened student for their disorganization and apathy: Thanks for Not Hanging Together.

It makes hanging you separately all the easier for the bill collectors. Up to this point in time, there has been no organized student revolt to the depredations in its ranks. It’s not unlike watching a National Geographic wildlife show in which one animal is mauled and eaten by a predator while the rest of the herd stands cautiously a safe distance away…

Even given the love affair between lenders and agencies, I wonder if they consider the very real but incalculable cost to America and Americans by the damage done to those who intended to use their education to better themselves and their communities.

These people were to be our future nurses, engineers, lawyers, salespeople – taxpayers! Those possibilities are diminishing, as many employers now pull credit reports on job applicants and our defaulting student loan student is almost automatically assured a “No, thank you” no matter how otherwise qualified they might be.

These young citizens were encouraged to go to expensive private schools to earn a more prestigious degree which might guarantee a premium paying job – but now denied gainful employment sufficient to even pay back the loans! These are the people who are now marginally employed, living either on the welfare of their family…or the state…and are poster children examples of the products of Predatory Lending and heated pursuit.

“Student-loan debt collectors have power that would make a mobster envious.”

This was told a reporter in a WS Journal interview last year with Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor and bankruptcy specialist and now Director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (Another source for the industry to thank: Republicans are campaigning to cut this department’s funding in half).

As reported by Mother Jones, the new Consumer Protection Bureau – created to crack down on shady real estate loans and predatory lenders – was not given that same authority to deal with student loans described as by (the then) New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as the ‘Wild West’ of lending.

“Private student loans are exactly the kind of dangerously under-regulated financial product that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau needs to oversee,” Pauline Abernathy, vice president of the Institute for College Access and Success, said. “Failing to give the new bureau full authority over all private student loans would leave young people and other vulnerable consumers, and our economy, at the mercy of unscrupulous lenders.”

And collectors, I might add.

A potential problem: students see no difference between loan predators and varmints.

As fortunately positioned as the industry presently finds itself, let me ask my brothers and sisters in that world this question. If you knew that powerful predators were out to maim and eat your young, wouldn’t you get out the bait and traps and destroy these vermin with no compunction?

There isn’t much in the way of pitchforks and torches (or steel traps) in sight, yet… But, if I were a debt collector chasing after these unfortunate souls who inevitably will find themselves in my Queue, I’d be concerned.

The traps are being oiled as we speak. You may well have to be prepared to gnaw off a leg!

As an ongoing example of my literary promiscuity, I have contributed articles to various sites and am a featured guest blogger for a major media player in the debt collection industry,  www.insidearm.com.

Recently, the site changed their policies regarding people who posted remarks on material. Having been the recipient of a few brickbats (and also orchids), I can understand the desire to “civilize” a dialogue – or, at least make people responsible for what they post by requiring them to use their real name and/or email address.

On the face of it, it seems to be the right thing for insideARM to do – why allow people busy unloading their buckshot to hide behind the duck blind? Get ‘em out where we can see them.

I guess I am too much influenced by an Open Source mentality and this whistleblower world, but I am not happy with that decision.

In retrospect, not a great idea.

As can be learned from the WikiLeaks spectacle, society is not all that welcoming to those who tattle, complain, or provide refuge for those who do. Yet, without that opportunity to speak safely one’s mind, this would be a sorry, colorless and regimented world indeed.  To paraphrase Shakespeare, “The truth will out – NOW.”

Feedback, whether it is accurate, fair, totally off-base or even inflammatory is necessary and vital to an atmosphere of free speech. Free…as in unfettered. “You lie!” serves as a good (bad) example…thank you, Mr. Representative.

With this in mind, I revisited several of my original posts on insideARM which generated “anonymous” responses.  For the record, those behind the duckblinds were more likely to take uncomplimentary potshots at me than those who identified themselves, but I absolutely appreciated their contribution.

Consider my blog about a fellow soldier in that industry (Linda Almonte – JPMorgan Chase whistleblower) who had been unfairly – if not illegally – dismissed from employment because she would not sign off on a bad debt portfolio.

Bad debt portfolio? That’s where bad boys and girls go when they don’t pay their credit card bills and the banks “write them off” and then sell their remaining balance to debt purchasers to pursue.

That practice, and Ms. Almonte’s role, in particular, didn’t attract just my attention. The NYTimes wrote an extensive article taking the debt selling and purchasing industry to task for robo-signing affidavits as part of a lawsuit-mill to get debtors into court.  Not to forget the shabby controls they had in place to ensure veracity of details.

The article referenced Ms. Almonte in her role as a team leader over advisers, analysts and managers at JPMorgan Chase in which she was responsible for preparing a debt portfolio for sale. Some 23,000 delinquent accounts with a face value of $200MM, were to be sold off at roughly 13 cents on the dollar, which would realize a net of $26MM for the bank.

But, as Almonte discovered and reported to her superiors, “We found that with about 5,000 accounts there were incorrect balances, incorrect addresses…even cases where a consumer had won a judgment against Chase, but it was still part of the package being sold,” she told The Times.

So, how did my blog go over at insideARM? And, what role did anonymity play?

Within the spectrum of responses was one gem, from “Manager, Credit & Collections.”

“Linda’s responsibility was to the bank… (she) should have quite and kept her mouth shut. She is just fueling the fire against the ARM/DEBT buying industry.” He went on… “…I have little or no respect for the whistleblower mentality. If you advise your superior of your concerns and they are ignored you have two choices, shut your mouth or find another job. Simple.” – JS

Gee, does that have the ring of, “America – love it or leave it?”

But, let’s analyze the shots taken.   The complaint was that Ms. Almonte harming the ARM industry, being a whistleblower, and not being a team player (as evidenced by not shutting her mouth).

We – that’s you and me – all need to hear this way of thinking. We need to hear this because we need to know where people stand.

We need to know where people are coming from in the collections industry.  Beleagured by bad press and hounded by states’ attorney generals, it is at a crossroads, in which it will choose to defend “business as usual” and deride its critics, or step back to reflect and seek changes. Whoever may be the ‘silent majority’ in their midst need to speak out.  These people either need to stop being silent, or admit that they are not in the majority and that the industry’s stand is intractable.

Let me mention one other critical (and anonymous) person who disputed my article and remarked: “How do you know what happened at Chase?   Those who can – do. Those who can’t – criticize. Get a job!”

I really appreciate that this person went out of their way to correct me in my misperceptions.  But, the effect it had on me was to confirm – after some soul-searching – my intentions to continue my role as gadfly and to campaign for positive changes in the way debt is collected and debtors are perceived.

No, Mr/Ms. Anonymous, I don’t know for a certainty what happened at Chase to cause them to dismiss a Six-Sigma blackbelt who was doing her job of protecting her company and by extension its customers by following its own internal rules.  What I do know is that no one can dispute her “can do” credentials.  Nor is it correct to describe her attempts to get upper management to listen as mere “criticism.”

So, even though I don’t want to bite the hands that allow me to post a guest blog on insideARM, I delivered this following request.  When it comes to any of their readers responding to what is said in my blog, allow them to post and any anything they want, in any fashion they want, and under any pseudonym they desire.

After all, it’s not their name that any of us need to know – it’s their thinking.

I trust you feel the same.

(P.S. My original posting of the Almonte blog: Damned if You Do – Fired if You Don’t. http://bit.ly/aQnoRW

And another piece of note: Whistleblowers – Where Are You When We Need You? http://bit.ly/bq0veu

If there were to be an Academy Award for the Credit and Collections Industry, there would inevitably have to be a category for “Best Guy (or Gal) in the Role of Bill Collector.”

Of the tens of thousands of people in the debt collection world, I wonder how the candidates would be selected.

Most aggressive? Greatest number of dollars collected in a Quarter? Largest numbers of files closed? Volume of phone calls made? Most/Fewest Countersuits and/or FTC complaints created?

Would anyone laugh (the debtors in the TV viewing audience, that is)  if “Good Guy” was coveted as the title most applauded and sought after?

The answer, in this present economy and an environment in which more than 400 lawsuits were filed against collection agencies and creditors the first half of January of this year and almost 14,000 lawsuits filed in 2010, is surely “yes.”

Being a “Good Guy” in this industry – if public perception rules – would have to be located in the “Fantasy” bin. Why, oh why, has this industry allowed this perception to rule? How has the game been rigged so that only the bad guys are noticed?

In this admittedly fictitious night-of-stars scenario, let me offer a candidate who just might turn the audience around – Steven Gan. Steven is President of Stellar Risk Management Services, Inc. in Northbrook, Il. He titles himself, rightly, as a commercial credit insurance specialist and credit risk management consultant, but is, bone-deep, a bill collector.

How did I come about choosing Steven for his performance as “Good Guy” when there are certainly so many of you to choose from? That, in itself, may be instructive…especially for others in the industry who work so hard to be noticed (read: appreciated and paid well).

I first came across Steven via Social Media. Or, he came across me when he read an earlier blog of mine for insideARM. It was a controversial piece, if I remember, and his was a lone voice of balance and respect. Balance and respect. Now, that’s notable in itself.

He didn’t stop with a simple remark on the blog column – he then sought me out as a connection on LinkedIn and then requested to join my non-public group, Finance Wisdom 3.0. I accepted the requests, being pitifully grateful for the attention, and began researching Steven and his background.

Career professional? Check. Certified Credit Executive? Check.

What moved Steven into the “leading contender” group, however, were the above-and-beyond notches in his belt. His body of work included the additional history of having been a corporate controller, earning an MBA, and qualifying as a CPA. Oh yes, he even falls into the “foreign” category, having lived in Japan for 15 years – 12 of these as president of his own firm, Advance & Associates. That firm was the first company to create and implement the before and after sales total credit risk management product line system in Japan.

Another check – out of that experience came a book he wrote (did I mention he was fluent in Japanese?), “The Blue Eyed Debt Collector, His Struggle” which sold over 20,000 copies there.

More checks to his credit – degrees, foreign travel, multi-lingual and entrepreneurial.

However, these accomplishments do not guarantee the award of “Good Guy.” So, let me invite the audience and the Academy (I guess this would be members of the ACA, foreign affiliates of this industry, and subscribers to insideARM) to listen in on my PWRNradio.com interview with Steven.

As an informed voter, keep a pen handy to note the differences that set Steven apart from others in this industry: http://bit.ly/os3mvP.

A question I might ask you the 80,000-plus collection professionals who belong to the ACA. If there were an evening of bright lights and acclaim for superior performance in debt collection – would you and your body of work enable you to make your way up to the podium? Really? Let’s ask the debtors in our audience…

The envelope, please…

One of the major purposes of “Written Off – America and Americans” is to provide hope and help for people drowning in the oceans of pain brought to us by the Great Recession. Certainly, no people in recent history have experienced the bleakness of such times. Right? Wrong.

An interview with “Brother Ernie” Paniciolli, a famed photographer who was there at the very beginning of the Hip Hop movement proves otherwise.  As a man who prowled the dusty streets of the Bronx where poverty ruled and “urban blight” described the art that decorated the walls of seemingly bombed-out neighborhoods, he saw – and recorded – things differently.

Who could have been more “written off” than the black and Hispanic youth of that time?  What would be more unlikely than to see grow from the graffiti scratches and the poetry being spoken sound – a major economic and cultural force we came to call Hip Hop .

Ernie was recently featured in a December edition of Hip Hop Weekly as one of the seminal photographers to chronicle Hip Hop from its very beginning. The author, Dasun Allah, captured him beautifully in this tribute: “He is the native sun who illuminated a world with his flash-bulb; a First Nation’s descendant and one of the first to ever do it, he has walked among and is of the ranks of Hip Hop immortals.”

In an hour-long interview on my PWRNradio.com show, “Down, But Not Out – America’s Revolt Against Being ‘Written Off,’” Ernie takes us through the genesis and evolution of Hip Hop and the resultant $200-billion-plus industry it has evolved into…and how that experience helped him to develop the rules that determine success in any enterprise and under any circumstances.

Ernie demonstrates a mind as sharp as his lens, blending references to the Dalai Lama, the Black Panther Party, Public Enemy, The Universal Zulu Nation, Will Smith, Biggie, LL J Cool, Queen Latifah, economics, politics, and wars to shrewd views on what it takes to survive and even thrive.

Want to hear the three requirements that – if met – will make you a success?  Tune in now (anytime, really, as we are “on-demand”) to an interview that you will remember for years to come.  Oh yes, and don’t forget to visit Brother Ernie on Facebook and search for Ernie Paniciolli’s books on Lulu.com.

PWRN Radio: Down, But Not Out: America’s Revolt Against Being Written Off – Show #4